Blogs: A French lesson for Obama

Progressive bloggers on Monday pointed to the election of a Socialist, Francois Hollande, to the presidency of France to suggest that austerity measures in Europe weren’t working — or pleasing the electorate there — and that similar policies wouldn’t be effective in the United States.

“Austerity pushers across Europe and the U.S. recoil in horror at the news, knowing that Hollande will soon add more proof that they’ve been full of crap all along,” wrote Bill at the Daily Kos.

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“The pro-austerity craze in Europe took a serious blow with this result today,” argues Chris at AMERICAblog.

“Europe is at a crossroads now, and you can rest assured that the Powers That Be will be trying to influence the new leadership in whatever friendly way they can to change their minds about austerity - and in some not-so-friendly ways as well,” warned Susie Madrak at Crooks and Liars.

In fact, some even suggested that Hollande’s policies could bring domestic political benefits to President Barack Obama.

“If the new French president can be a catalyst in pushing Europe away from its asphyxiating austerity regime and towards a vigorous recovery, Obama will be more than compensated for, given that the weak European economy is one the main threats to his re-election in November,” wrote Yannis Palaiologos at The American Prospect.

Meanwhile, conservative bloggers blasted Hollande, accusing him of not being able to lead Europe, and in turn, necessitating American leadership.

“The bigger picture… is that American life is made substantially more difficult by Hollande’s inevitable and foreshadowed refusal to lead Europe and make Europe a leading force in the world. The political inspiration that only France can provide Europe will have to be played once again by a United States that is historically tired of playing that role,” asserted AllahPundit at HotAir.

“The United States needs France. Yes, that sounds like a joke, but France is the only country capable of leading Europe politically… with a real, live European-style socialist in Paris, U.S. President Barack Obama will face a Hobson’s choice: work closely with Hollande and incur the wrath of Republicans, or distance himself from Hollande and squander yet another opportunity to ensure that Europe’s future is as fully as possible in the hands of its greatest power,” he added.

“I was no fan of M Sarkozy, but François Hollande’s victory is a vote to postpone France’s and Europe’s reacquaintance with reality. Après moi, le delusion – yet again,” wrote Mark Steyn at the National Review, arguing that the Socialist’s agenda would simply delay needed policy changes.

Some conservatives also tweaked the president, who some on the right consider a “European-style socialist.”

“Not surprisingly, a friendly working relationship may already be developing,” wrote Doug Powers at Michelle Malkin’s blog.

“In reading his platform rhetoric it sounded quite familiar to that which we are hearing in America,” write conservative Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) on his Facebook page.

”It means that France is gone,” said Rush Limbaugh, on the results of the French election. “It means that there are more people on the take than there are producing, pure and simple… What it means? It only means what it means for France. It’s impossible to extrapolate this, unless you want to say that we’ve become France. I don’t think we’re there yet.”

But on the other hand, Human Events’ John Gizzi noted that Hollande and Obama have not yet connected in person.

“An attempt by Hollande’s campaign to arrange a photo opportunity with President Obama in the Oval Office never worked out…the next chapter of Francois Hollande’s dramatic rise to power — whether voters fully embrace his left of center-agenda and how it impacts on the U.S. and France’s European neighbors — has yet to be written,” Gizzi observes.

The European message should go to Republicans who suddenly became "born-again deficit hawks" once out of the White House. Remember, they are the party from Reagan forward who took a National Debt at less than $800 billion through Carter, and tripled it under Reagan; GHW Bush added to it with the more military spending and invasions; and GW Bush more than doubled it yet again and saddled America with two, unpaid-for, unnecessary wars combined at 20 years based upon lies, deception, arrogance and greed. Those lifetimes of war bills, misery and suffering for veterans and their families, and hundreds of thousands of innocent victums, and over six million war refugees will continue along with the costly VA healthcare projected to cost $5 trillion.

Notice that Republicans want to keep their government-created-jobs and contracts going while cutting programs for the poor, needy, women, children, and the elderly. Their austerity programs only applies to the poor and lower-incomed middle class. They are the warmongers and war profiteers who gave us their 435-plus GOP-approved war profiteers in Iraq and Afghanistan while posting $60 billion in waste, fraud, and abuse while failing in their nation-building.

Notice the GOP never challenged raising the National Debt ceiling 18 times under Reagan, or eight times under GW Bush, no challenge to the billions in GOP "bridge to nowhere" pork projects, or keeping the $50 billion-plus, Reagan-era to present, unnecessary, unproven SDI-spinoff anti-ballistic missile systems going which also add to the National Debt.

The pro-rich, anti-poor, anti-worker Republicans and their Wall St. .006 percenter posterchild of greed Romney have nothing to offer America but more tax cuts and breaks for the rich and more taxes and fewer services for everybody else. They are morally bankrupt and Judgment Day cannot come soon enough for them, but it is coming. No amount of GOP spin or burdening wealth will save them.

Notice that Republicans never mention any of the US banks like JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs that preyed upon Spain and Greece, et al (100 US companies and municipal governments) with debt swaps gambling that American housing would never go down. The banksters egged on by Republicans like Phil Gramm took it all down, taking $15 trillion from American household wealth--lost jobs, lost homes and home values, lost investments and retirement savings, lost state and federal revenues.

Trillions were also stolen from the Eurozone as US banks avoided the stateside SEC and oversight with proprietary (non-public) trading. No wonder the Bush and Obama Administrations did not have a solid understanding of the enormous debt accumulated by Wall St. bankster fraud. They kept it hidden from the public. Compare European unemployment and debt/GDP ratio with America. Like America, the rich, super rich, and corporations failed to pay their fair share thanks to tax breaks, offshore, mobile accounts, etc.

Why is then that the percentage of GDP for govt spending has decreased under the last two Democratic presidents, and risen under Republican presidents in the last 30 years? (see: http://www.nytimes.com/interac...

I think people tend to forget, exploding deficits sprang from the Reagan era motto: "Deficits Don't Matter!" Of course this was while they were trying to sell their cockamamie voodoo economic ideas that are still with us today. Does anyone actually believe anymore that trickle down economics works? The collorary of "Deficits Don't Matter," is "Except when Democrats are in Power."

Republicans constantly talk about how they are deficit hawks, but get a Republican president and Republican Congress in power together, and suddenly the surplus Clinton left needs to be spent on billons of dollars for tax cuts. Suddenly there are unfunded entitlements and unfunded wars. Please, tell me why fical conservatives should trust Republicans who talk a good talk, but only when there's a Democrat in the White House?

Under Obama, Republicans have indeed been all about cutting government. And in part that is due to real conservative values of constrained government. And this has succeeded in some ways (see Budget Control Act which Republicans pushed through under the gun of the Debt Limit). But please, don't argue that Republicans did it because of their primarily concerned about fiscal restraint. I mean if that were truly their concern, they wouldn't now be crying about cuts to the military and they wouldn't be insisting on additional tax cuts for the wealthy that would further explode the debt crisis. Utter hypocrisy!

the question is timing. during lean years that is the wrong time to cut spending. during the boom times is when austerity can be applied successfully. the idea that austerity is either all good or all bad is too simple. if the economy is as bad as the GOP says it is, then now is NOT the time to cut spending.

So.........no cutting of entitlement programs or pensions? Where will the money come from to support the cradle to grave lifestyles? Greece has no choice but to cut back. They were warned and have been bailed out one too many times. Why would anyone want to have a socialist society? Europe has become a place where there are people who work for a living and there are people who vote for a living and now the voters are outnumbering the workers. Who will create jobs? There is no possible way this will work. This article makes it sound like austerity cuts were purely politically motivated. The cutbacks just might save these countries. Adding more to their debt will be their complete ruin. Are all Europeans stupid?

Big victory for the parasite class in France. Too bad the Germans said nein to renegotiating the austerity pact to save the Euro. So if the 'cheese eating surrender monkeys' don't want to cut spending, they can leave the Euro and start printing francs...can you say fiscal trainwreck?

Amusing but occasionally infuriating to see Americans commenting on France and the EU based on zero factual information. Not to say that I haven't heard French people make equally ignorant statements about the US. Public sector debt in France and the UK is actually *lower* than in the US as a percentage of GDP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... Greece is an outlier, at 2x the EU average for public sector debt relative to GDP. Even the French Socialists, when they ran the government, did a better job than either the Republicans or the Democrats in the US of keeping public sector debt from exploding.

Austerity measures in times of economic contraction almost always make things worse, at least in the short term. Banks like them, because they help ensure that the value of their loans isn't inflated away by governments printing money, but when economies depend as much on consumer spending as they do in the US and EU, cutting government contracts and sacking teachers, nurses, policemen, etc. takes money out of circulation and undercuts recovery. The current situation in the UK is being watched by the rest of the EU with a great deal of interest. The Conservative/LibDem government went way beyond what anyone else in Europe thought wise in cutting spending, and saw feeble growth replaced by a return to outright recession. You're not going to see many other EU governments diving down that rat hole any time soon, socialist or no.

If Obama wanted America to fail - He would oversee 3 annual $Trillion Dollar Deficits that will force America’s emerging Workforce to pay ever larger portions of their Gross Earnings in Taxes just to cover the Interest owing on our expanding $15.5 Trillion in National Debt.

The Republicans (Phil Gramm - working for UBS, now - figures) created and sold the GBLA act 1999 as a 'bigger banks and bigger energy companies will give American consumers the lowest cost/price'........The POS traitorous republican legislation drove America into the worst collapse since 1929. And, the republicans are back again, only a few years later after their massive experiment failed and saying that 1% and the banks and big oil and big coal all need subsidies and tax credits and that, guess what' bigger is better! ..... The republicans are maniacs and very dangerous to America surviving the republican-inflicted wounds.

The republicans also said in 2001 that America would have 'surplus' in 2011. That was the reason given for the tax cuts, the best tax cuts going to the 1%.

Kill the 'war on drugs'; a giant waste of money. and reallocate some of the forces on a 'war on corruption'.

France is making a smart move - moderating capitalism with socialism. The 99% of France have spoken. The republicans, one would believe, would embrace the democracy of the vote. Instead, they cry about it.

Leave to the trolls at the Daily Kook to try and spin this disastrous election on the failure of austerity when in fact it is about the lazy socialist slobs about ready to run rough shod over what remains of the private sector in in this little euro thrash ****** state.

I love how the Republicans become serious deficit hawks once they are OUT of the White House. The Republicans seemed to have no problem with the billions added to the deficit/debt as a result of Bush's wars; in fact, anyone who opposed them was called "unpatriotic." The measures being pushed by Etch-a-Sketch will only result in austerity for the middle class and the poor; the additional tax cuts for the wealthy won't have much of a austere impact on them! Severe austerity measures, like those being employed in Europe, will result in more unemployment, and could result in a double-dip recession. Until everyone realizes that the only solution to the problem is a combination of cuts and revenue increases, our problems will linger.

The banksters egged on by Republicans like Phil Gramm took it all down, taking $15 trillion from American household wealth--lost jobs, lost homes and home values, lost investments and retirement savings, lost state and federal revenues.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor, Paris "Mr Hollande has already hinted at complacency, suggesting that market calm over the last two weeks is a vote of confidence in his policies. It is no such thing.

Paris has a strange atmosphere right now. It is hard to get a table at the bistros of Saint-Germain, yet people have a sense of foreboding.

They know austerity has hardly begun. The press is full of stories that the biggest property bubble ever known in France has begun to deflate. Yet the party goes on. Perhaps this is what it felt like in May 1931, avant le déluge.

France faces a property slump of Anglo-Saxon proportions as the frothiest boom in French history finally tips over, threatening the country with an economic shock just as austerity hits.

A housing slump would hammer the economy just as long-delayed austerity begins in earnest. Property makes up 65pc of French household wealth, compared with 57pc in Germany, 39pc in Japan and 27pc in the US.

"It reached a paroxysm in the summer of 2011. There is a mix of incredulity and denial as it starts to burst but there can be little doubt that all levers propelling the market are disappearing."

PrimeView said prices across France have jumped 160pc since 1998, though houshold incomes are up just 35pc. Paris has overtaken New York to become the world's third costliest city at €18,000 (£14,600) per square metre.